Recently, Txai has lent me the first two books in the Tintin series, which I have read before, but mainly just looked at the pictures. This time, I looked at the pictures again (along with the words, I am no longer 6) and noticed how horribly stereotypical those books where. It was appalling.
Every single black person in the book was portrayed to be the shade of midnight and ALWAYS, stressing the always, were either servants who were clueless, or crooks and henchmen to the bad guy. The henchmen looked a lot like monkeys who had just been thrown out a tree. It was strange seeing what people who drew described as. I don't know, it might just be me, but i really think it's creepy to make races stereotyped in cartoons. odd.
Indians are again, very stereotyped. They are shown as angry stupid men, who use the words "um" and "How chief" to an extent. I have never actually met a pure native American, but I have a feeling that they don't get tricked into killing each other by residue being flicked at them by a white kid tied to a stake.
Chinese people are the ones that are so badly portrayed, it makes me laugh. They all where fast food employee outfits that I would assume belong to a burger king drive thru attendant rather then a emperor.
Everyone has eyes that are so slanted they couldn't possibly see from them. Oh, and they all smoke truck loads of opium.
When did the world finally realize that not every Chinese person smokes opium?
Theo you actually made me think about tintin and your right. Well at least most of the time these things are true.
ReplyDeleteI do think that you didn't really go very far with this theory you kinds just converted it into a blog about stereotypes.
i think its funny you think its funny.
ReplyDeletei also think it's funny that tin tin is kinda one of those main stream comics that lots of people read. They're originally french -i think- and i used to love them too. Reading this really makes me wana' go back and revisit some of them. I as well think that you could go deeper into the theory, and not just have the blog about stereotypes. it could be so much deeper.
-dont steal any more of lilabet's books!
SABBY Q
what books?
ReplyDeleteTintin was originally published in Belgium.
ReplyDeleteDoes the fact that it's European change your perception of it?
Does the time period they were written in affect anything?
You should research if there have been any public statements about the stereotypes in Tintin by the publisher.